For a start, if, as an adviser, you have a customer with protection needs then you need to understand them and offer appropriate solutions. You cannot claim to be a holistic adviser if you only give advice on pensions and investments.
Do not get me wrong: your customer base may be older and have little need for income protection, but there could still be room for conversations about inheritance tax liabilities and how a protection policy could help avoid any massive tax bills that may come in.
As an industry, we focus heavily on marketing to advisers but, in my opinion, we need to change. We need to start creating marketing campaigns that go direct to consumers so they can see first-hand what is available to them.
We do not do this because insurers cannot guarantee that the business will go their way and, rather than focusing on education, they focus on where they will be able to make the most money.
Yes, they are businesses and need to make a profit but the way we try to spread the message at the moment has its limitations, so we need to think outside the box.
With health, fitness and wellbeing being high on a lot of industries' agendas, we could be tapping into this to dovetail our key messages.
Insurers have so many additional services now, such as mental health support, GP services and physiotherapy to name a few, and we are missing a trick by not getting them in consumer-facing magazines, podcasts and even TV programmes.
To my mind, there is just so much more we could be doing, but I appreciate it does take time and, more importantly, money.
Examples of engagement
For example, L&G had its umbrella on the weather section of the news, and that is synonymous with my generation and those before me for insurance.
Vitality has gone some way with its dachshund and sports stars in their adverts to promote the brand, but we need to build on this to get pertinent messages across to consumers through a medium that is relevant to them.
Insurers could come together with some of the industry’s other bodies to create content that reaches the people who need it most. We spend so much time, effort and money on creating really strong sales messages but now we need to push them further, so they are not wasted or get to consumers third hand.
An area that we all need to get better at is supporting advisers with their marketing and advertising.
Some networks and service providers offer basic training in these areas but with everything now available at the touch of a button, we should be bringing financial advice and, more importantly protection, into the 21st century.
